Oct 29: Republic Day (anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic in 1923)

Religious holidays

Ramazan Bayrami: Three-day festival when sweets are eaten to celebrate the end of the fast of Ramadan month. Also known as "Seker (sweets) Bayrami" since it's customary to offer candies to family members and friends that are visiting.

Kurban Bayrami: Four-day festival when sacrificial sheep or cow are slaughtered and their meat distributed to the poor.

The dates of these religious festivals change according to the Islamic calendar and thus occur 10-11 days (exact difference between Gregorian and Lunar calendars is 10 days and 21 hrs) earlier each year. According to this;

Ramazan Bayrami (or Seker Bayrami) in 2016 is celebrated on 5-6-7 July. In 2017 it will be on 25-26-27 June, in 2018 will be on 15-16-17 June, in 2019 will be on 5-6-7 June, in 2020 will be on 24-25-26 May.

Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice holiday) in 2016 is celebrated on 12-13-14-15 September. In 2017 it will be on 1-2-3-4 September, in 2018 will be on 21-22-23-24 August, in 2019 will be on 11-12-13-14 August, in 2020 will be on 31 July - 1-2-3 August.

This religious holiday was celebrated on 31 December 2006 - 1-2-3 January 2007 and on 20-21-22-23 December 2007. As you can notice, there were two Kurban Bayrami dates in 2007, it's not a mistake but it happens every 32 years. Same with Ramazan Bayrami but it happened in 2000 and won't happen again until 2032.

About Muslim festivals & celebrations

The Festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.

There are two great holidays in Islam,
'Idul-Fitr, which falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of
the Islamic year, and 'Idul-Adha, which falls on the tenth day of Thul-Hijjah
and coincides with the Yauman-Nahr, "Day of the Sacrifices" in the Hajj
Pilgrimage.

Eid-ul-Fitr, Ramazan Bayrami or Seker Bayrami in Turkish (the "Festival of the Breaking of the Fast"), occurs as soon as the new moon is sighted at the end of the month of fasting, namely Ramadan. Therefore, it's also known as Ramadan holiday.

On this festival people, having previously
distributed the alms which are called the Sadaqatu'l-Fitr, assemble in
the vast assembly outside the city in the Igdah, and, being led by the
imam, recite two rak'ahs of
prayer. After prayers
the imam ascends the
mimbar,
or pulpit, and delivers the khutbah, or oration.

The igdah is a large place especially set aside for the large congregations
who will attend the special Eid prayer early in
the morning and can be an open field or flat piece of ground. It is only
used as such on festival days for congregational
prayers,
the proper place always being the mosque on other
occasions.

On the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month, comes the Ramazan ki'Id,
or Ramadan celebration, when every one who fasts
before going to the place of prayer (igdah) should
make the customary fast offering (roza ki fitrat), which consists in distributing
among a few Faqirs (poor) some 5 lb. (2.5kg) of wheat or other grain, dates
and fruit. For until a man has distributed these gifts or the equivalent
in money, the Almighty will keep his fasting suspended between Heaven and
Earth.

The Eid prayer is not only said at an unusual
place but is also conducted without the usual azaan (ezan), the call to
prayer.
This practice of omitting the azaan was allegedly practiced by Muhammad
himself and is founded on this hadith (hadis):

Jabir bin Abdullah said, "The Prophet went
out on the Day of 'Id-ul-Fitr and offered the prayer
before delivering the Khutba". Ata told me that during the early days of
Ibn-Az-Zubair, Ibn Abbas had sent a message to him telling him that the
Adhan for the 'Id Prayer was never pronounced (in the lifetime of
Allah's
Apostle) and the Khutba used to be delivered after the
prayer.

The festival is intended to be a festive and
joyous occasion. Special foods and delicacies
are prepared for the day and are distributed to neighbors and friends.
Despite its importance it is considered inferior to the Eid-ul-Adha (Kurban
Bayrami) and is known as the "little feast".

Eid-ul-Adha, Kurban Bayrami in Turkish (the "Feast
of Sacrifice") is the great festival of Islam.
It is also known as Baqri-Eid (the "Cow Festival") because its most important
feature is the sacrifice of an animal (cow, goat, sheep, or other appropriate
beast) in commemoration of the ram sacrificed by Abraham in place of his
son. In Muhammad's time a camel
was usually the animal sacrificed. The command to perform sacrifices is
given in Surah 22.36 and although no
specific day is fixed in the Qur'an the sacrificing
of animals was already practiced on the last day of the pilgrimage
by the pre-Islamic Arabs and the institution was duly retained. A special
prayer,
similar to the Eid-ul-Fitrprayer,
is also offered on this day before the animals are sacrificed.

Narrated Al-Bara: I heard the Prophet delivering
a Khutba (hutbe) saying, "The first thing to be done on this day (the first day
of 'Id-ul-Adha) is to pray; and after returning
from the prayer we slaughter our sacrifices (in
the name of Allah), and whoever does
so, he acted according to our Sunna (traditions) " (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol.
2, p. 37).

Every Muslim home is obliged to offer
a sacrifice on this day. The meat may be eaten by the family but a distribution
of a generous share to the poor should also be made. As the two Eids (bayrams)
are festive occasions, it is unlawful to fast on these days. Fasting on
Eid-ul-Adha (Kurban Bayrami) would, in fact, defeat the whole object of
the festival for food is to be eaten on this day
with a cheerful heart in remembrance of God's bounty and provision for
mankind. Umar once said:

The Apostle of Allah (may peace
be upon him) prohibited fasting on these two days. As regards Id al-Adha,
you eat the meat of your sacrificial animals. As for Id al-Fitr, you break
(i.e. end) your fast. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Vol. 2, p. 663).

The name commonly given to the Eid sacrifice, qurbani (kurban), seems
to have similar origins to the Jewish "Corban", meaning something set apart for God (Mark 7.11), and is probably derived from the Jewish word. Both Eids (bayrams) can last for two or three days but the prescribed rituals
and prayers must be performed on the first day of
each festival.

The Three Special Nights in the Islamic Year

Islam has three holy nights each year, the most
important being Laylatul-Qadr (the "Night of Power") which is traditionally
believed to be the 27th night of Ramadan. It
is the night on which the Qur'an was allegedly
brought down to the first heaven before being revealed to Muhammad
and it is also the night on which special blessings are believed to be
sent down on true worshippers from heaven:

We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power: And what
will explain to thee what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is
better than a thousand Months. Therein come down the angels and the Spirit
by God's permission on every errand: Peace! ... This until the rise of
Morn! Surah 97.1-5.

There was much uncertainty about the actual night in the early days
of Islam, however, and it was only known to be
one of the last ten nights of Ramadan. Muhammad
reportedly said:

I had discovered the night of Qadr, but I have been made to forget.
I think that I saw that I was performing sajdah on the morning of the Night
of Qadr in mud and water. Seek it, therefore, in the last ten days at odd
nights. (Muwatta Imam Malik, p. 128).

Other traditions say it falls on one of the last seven nights of the
month. The night is also called laylatim - mubaarakah in Surah
44.3 - "a blessed night". This is one night of the year when every Muslim
will seek to attend the evening prayer and the usual
tarawih prayer of Ramadan.

The second great holy night of Islam is Laylatul-Bara'ah,
the "Night of Record", which falls on the fifteenth night of Shabaan, the
month before Ramadan. Once again every effort
will be made to attend the mosque.

On this night, Muhammad said, God registers
annually all the actions of mankind which they are to perform during the
year, and that all the children of men, who are to be born and to die in
the year, are recorded. Muhammad enjoined his
followers to keep awake the whole night, to repeat one hundred rikat prayers,
and to fast the next day. (Hughes, Notes on Muhammadanism, p. 116).

The night is also commonly known as Shabi-Baraat and it is said that
there is a tree in heaven which sheds a number of leaves on this night,
each one containing the name of someone destined to die in the coming year.
The mercy of Allah, nevertheless,
also descends on this night and sinners who repent are likely to obtain
forgiveness in it. There appears to be a possibility that the night's significance
may have Jewish origins.

In Jewish legend the world was created on New Year's day. No cosmological
significance attaches to the First of Muharram, the official opening of
the Muslim year. But the night of the Fifteenth
of Sha'ban, lailat al-bara'a (behind which hitherto unexplained term the
Hebrew beria, "creation", may be concealed) has preserved associations
characteristic of a New Year's festival. (Von Grunebaum,
Muhammadan Festivals, p. 53).

The third holy night is Laylatul-Mi'raj (Mirac), the "Night of Ascension",
commemorating Muhammad's ascent to heaven. It
is traditionally celebrated on the night preceding the 27th of Rajab, when
the mosques and the minarets
are lighted and there is much devotional reading of popular accounts of
the Mi'raj.

This night, like the others, is also one in which much reading of the
Qur'an and a reciting of prayers
takes place.

These three nights are the most important nights in the
Islamic faith and are universally observed by the
Muslims.

The Other Minor Holy Days in the Islamic Year

There are really only two other days in the Muslim
year that are regarded as especially important. One is the tenth of Muharram,
the first month of the Islamic year. During Muhammad's
life this day became a day of fasting in imitation of the Jewish fast of Ashura (cf. Exodus 12. 1-7). This practice was soon abandoned, however,
and Muhammad is reported as saying that fasting
on this day is not obligatory. After the massacre of Muhammad's
grandson Husain (Hüseyin) and his band of followers at Karbala on
this same day many years later, the whole of the first ten days of Muharram
became a time of mourning for Shi'ite Muslims
and today the day itself is observed in both Sunni
and Shi'iteIslam
as a remembrance of the tragedy at Karbala.

The other holy day is Maulidun-Nabi, the birthday of Muhammad,
which falls on the 12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal. This festival
of great feasting and many peculiar practices of un-Islamic origin is often
frowned upon by the more orthodox Muslims
and took some time to become widely observed.

The feast of the birth of the Prophet (milad,
maulud in the Maghrib) is celebrated throughout the whole Muslim
world on the 10th of rabi I; it seems to date only from the 10th century
and to have become official only in the 12th.

One of the intellectual ancestors of Wahhabism, Ibn Taimiyya (d.1328),
in a fatwa (legal opinion) tersely condemns the introduction of new festivals
such as that celebrated "during one of the nights of the First Rabi, alleged
to be the night of the birth of the Prophet".
The participation of women was criticized with
especial vigor by his contemporary, Ibn al-Hajj (d.1336), and it still
gives occasional offence to the more strict-minded and orthodox. (Von Grunebaum,
Muhammadan Festivals, p. 76).

Many Muslims openly concede that the
practice of observing Muhammad's birthday is
an innovation in Islam, something invariably disapproved
of by conservative elements, but they excuse it as a "praiseworthy" innovation,
a bid'atun-hasanah. It has also become customary to hold celebrations honoring
various "saints" in Islam on this day as well,
a custom considered even more reprehensible by orthodox Muslims.
It seems likely that the Christianfestival
of Christmas gave rise to this equivalent in Islam.
Ironically neither the actual date on which Jesus was born nor the birthday
of Muhammad is known and the dates recorded
are purely speculative. Even the Muslim
world is not entirely unanimous in its determination of the date of the
Maulidun-Nabi but it is now generally held to be the 12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal,
coinciding conveniently with the date of Muhammad's
death.

There are many other days in popular Islam that
have become widely observed in the Muslim
world, especially the Urs of any particular saint (usually his birthday
when various unorthodox celebrations take place), but the two Eids (Bayrams)
and the three holy nights are the great festivals
of Islam and are the only ones universally observed
by all Muslims without dispute as to the
worthiness of the occasion.